Mickey Mouse Magic

It's true what they say about the magic of Disneyland - no one does it better than Disney. We had the best vacation - it really was the happiest place on Earth. Even with tired, hungry, crying kids - it was still completely magical. I loved every minute and soaked it all up - even though we're home now, I'm still gushing about how great it was.


We started talking about going to Disneyland when Derek's parents got their mission call to Riverside. It's about 40 miles from Anaheim so immediately the idea of visiting them included a trip to Disneyland. In January, we blessed Logan the day before his parents entered the MTC so with lots of Derek's family here, plans started flying. Soon we had 4 out of Derek's 5 siblings (including us) all ready to go. Over the last few months we've had a million phone calls and emails planning this trip - and then it finally came!
We all stayed at the same hotel which was really fun - we would have had more fun if we weren't completly exhausted every night! Derek's parents got special permission (Anaheim is out of their mission boundaries) to come with us to the park for a day and a half. The kids loved being with their cousins so much - I always had at least one kid off with another family - which was a huge help! We had 5 families, 12 kids (all under the age of 9!), 5 strollers, 2 missionaries, who knows how many diapers, granola bars, and fruit snacks and 3 great days at Disneyland. We had a blast.

Another Call from the School

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I hate getting calls from the school. I just cringe when I see them on Caller ID. So this morning when I see it's them at 9:30 I'm gritting my teeth as I answer. As soon as I answer I'm relieved to hear it's Tyler's teacher, not the school nurse again. So his teacher says to me, "Tyler told me that for lunch today he thinks you heard him say he wanted hot lunch but he really wants cold." Are you kidding me?! He thinks I might have heard him say that?! Probably because this morning when I said, "Tyler, chicken sandwich, lasagna, or cold lunch?" He said, "chicken sandwich". I'm pretty sure that's where I got it. So basically he changed his mind once he got to school, had his teacher call me, and then got me to take in a cold lunch for him! Another reason to hate calls from the school . . .

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary - 9 years for Derek and I. I've always loved that our anniversary is on May 1st. I love that it is just the height of spring. The temple was beautiful the day we got married with tulips everywhere. We've accomplished a lot over our 9 years together - we've each gotten bachelor's degrees, Derek's gotten a Masters, bought our first house, changed jobs, done several triathalons (ok . . . just Derek) and filled a minivan with kids!

It's great to pause and think about how great I've got it with Derek. He's the most patient, caring and fun dad and husband I could ask for. He never complains about nights with no dinner, drawers empty of clean clothes, or 'since you're out, could you just stop at Walmart for me?'. Also, he's the world's best omlette maker. Just this week while I've been thinking about our anniversary something happened that sums up life with Derek. Monday night I went running with 2 friends - it was hot and we were running 5 miles. We were out running some mile-long streets out of our neighborhood. We'd run more than 3 miles when I see a van that looks like ours parked to the side of the road. As we got closer out pile our 3 kids and Derek - with each kid holding a glass of water for us and cheering us on. That's so Derek - being a great and supportive husband while also being a fun dad - the kids loved waiting for us and discussing who was going to give who their water! That is life with Derek - I couldn't be luckier.

Look what 9 years will get ya!

New Friends

I know I seem to be on Tyler kick with my blogging but the kid is cracking me up lately. Today he comes home from school and tells me that at school today he played with a new friend named Alex. He tells me he met him yesterday and they played together and then the played together again today. I say, "how did you meet Alex?". He says, "Yesterday we just bumped into each other and started playing together." I think that's hilarious - isn't that what first grade should be? Can you imagine having this great friend and when someone asks how you met saying, "oh we bumped into each other at Walmart". I tell ya, he's cracking me up lately.

My Sweet little Blackmailer

I have only found one thing in the world that bugs Derek - spilled water. This is especially unfortunate for us because with little kids spilled water is about as common at our house as breathing. For some reason this is Derek's pet peeve (Derek's the only person who only has one pet peeve!) - it really pushes Derek's buttons. So this afternoon Tyler is doing homework at the table and I'm setting the table for dinner around him. I grab a cup of water and drop it on the floor. Tyler says, "did you just spill that water?" I say, "yeah, don't tell dad". He answers immediately with, "if you put my put my homework in my backpack for me I won't tell dad." Can you believe it? What a sneaky little guy! I just look at him and say, "I'm not putting your homework away - so go ahead and tell him." It really disappointed him that it backfired so quickly. Should I be worried?

Adalpe Conquered!

Derek ran the Race to Robie Creek yesterday. It's a 13.1 mile race up Robie Creek Road to Adalpe Summit and down to Robie Creek. They start at Fort Boise and then it's 8.4 miles to the summit - with a 2000 foot gain in elevation. Then the rest is downhill - steep downhill, not fun downhill.

He ran with his brother-in-law, Tate, who has done it before also. This is the first year they've run together, and they seemed to have a much better time running together.

Every year they have a theme that the whole run is based around. This year it was a Scottish theme - complete with lots of bagpipers throughout the course (even at the summit), and lots of runners in kilts.

Derek did awesome in the race - and totally deserved it. He's trained really hard since January, including running up the actual mountain every Saturday. It's a killer of a race - and he did 'totally kilt it'!

Tyler's trip to the E.R.

In the middle of the night on Thursday Tyler woke up crying and saying his heart hurt. Your heart hurts? Can that be right? He was dying in pain and Derek and I just didn't know what to do. We gave him some Ibuprofen, calmed him down, and then he went back to sleep. Friday morning he wakes up and everything is fine - off he goes to school. Derek and I talked that morning about what it could have been. We talked ourselves into the idea that maybe he's slept weird and pinched a nerve or something. We could talk ourselves into thinking this was a one-time freak thing.

Then that afternoon I hear the bus come home, I wait the 30 seconds it takes Tyler to walk the one house down from the bus stop. I wait for him to come in the door and instead of hearing him walk in, I hear knocking on the front door. There's Tyler, bawling, and Michelle (my neighbor), and her 2 kids. She said that Tyler got off the bus crying and saying his heart hurts. She was so worried about him that she walked him home. I get Tyler inside and ask him a million questions. It hurts just the same as the night before.

I call our doctor to ask what we should do (a.k.a.: we're coming in so get ready). I talk to the nurse and she says she really recommends that we go to the ER so they can do any monitoring that might need to be done. So I call Derek who'd gone into the office that afternoon and give him his choice: Tyler at ER or kids at home. He picks Tyler. To save time I loaded up the kids and met Derek at the hospital. By the time we get there Tyler is acting totally fine - I mean, completely fine. Isn't that always how it is? If you have a sick kids, just drive them to the doctor - they'll be fine by the time you get there.

So Derek and I are looking at him in the parking lot, and I'm starting to rethink this visit. Derek says no, we've had health professionals tell us to take him the ER! So in Tyler and Derek go. This leave me at home with three kids (read that as: out of the loop!) I tell Derek to call me every 30 minutes to give me the update. Derek did better than that - I started getting texts on the way home and Derek kept them coming.

The texts looked like this: "We're in" "Tyler in hospital gown" "waiting" "chest x-ray ordered" "waiting" "x-rays done" "waiting" "results back" - on and on they go. Derek did a great job of keeping me in the loop. Through texts I found out that at first they did a chest x-ray and that came back showing something - to find out what, would take a CAT scan. So Tyler had a CAT scan and then they could see what was there. Turns out he has pneumonia.

They gave him an antibiotic prescription for 5 days and sent him on his way. He hasn't complained once since he's been home about any pain. In fact, he's been acting like his completely maniac self. He played and played outside on Saturday, has slept fine, and is completely fine (which makes the fact that I stayed home with him on Saturday night while I wanted to be at my sister-in-law's house so badly for a great get-together much worse! I just thought we needed one more day on the antibiotic to make sure we weren't spreading this.).

I was convincing my mom that pneumonia couldn't really look like this and she told me it's probably 'walking pneumonia' - I informed her that this isn't 'walking' this is 'run around and be completely normal pneumonia'. So in short, may all of you who have to have pneumonia have 'run around and be completely normal pneumonia'.

The hospital gave Tyler a popsicle for his bravery!

Sick Day

This morning I'm enjoying myself at the 88-cent sale at Penney's (as much as you can when you have a double stroller that won't fit in between anything and you ram the tables around you so much you think your kids might have whiplash!) when I get a call from Tyler's school. I hate when I see his school on Caller ID - they're never calling to just tell you how pleasant your kid is. So I answer it and they tell me that Tyler think's he might throw up - I've found this announcement gets their attention (espcially coming from Tyler because he's kept his word before!). So I call Derek and tell him to go pick him up and I'll meet them at home.
At lunch time I ask him if he'd like anything to eat or if he's not hungry - he says he'll try something little like a graham cracker - graham cracker it is. After he eats that he tells me he still wants something to eat but this time he'll have 3 vanilla wafers because that last graham cracker was too big - I'm sure that makes some sense to a 6 year old. After his 3 wafers he's still looking for something to eat - he asks if he can have a roll - do I look like a bakery? I mean, I'm sure there are people out there who made rolls during the 30 minutes he was actually at school, but I'm not one of those people (and those people make me suspicious anyways). So the poor kid had to settle with a toast.
He's run around like a maniac the rest of the day so his sick day was spent just like a sick day should.

Let the Countdown Begin!

I'm so excited for our trip to Disneyland! For our FHE activity we made our paper chain until we leave for California - we're so close we can have a paper chain! I'm way more excited than the kids, sad to say, but nontheless true. I'm always asking them what characters they want to see, what rides they want to do - they're beginning to turn a deaf ear to my endless excitement. I've been reading my Disneyland book and going to a million 'how-to-do-Disneyland' websites with a ton of people overwhelming me with information. I'm completely on Mickey overload. But I just can't wait. This will be the first time we've taken the kids to Disneyland and Bay and Logan's first plane ride.
We're going with 3 of Derek's siblings and their families. It's going to be so fun to go together - we're staying in the same hotel (can you say 'circus'?), and doing the park for 3 days and then we're going to spend the weekend in Riverside with Derek's parents who are there on a mission (they got special permission to join us at the park one day). The kids will love being with their cousins and grandparents.
One night we're doing a character dinner at Goofy's kitchen - that should be really fun and then I'm hoping that the kids have enough energy to do Fantasmic and the fireworks one night. We're going to do Califonia Adventure one day and Disneyland 2 days - that should be enough to completly wear us out. The weekend in Riverside will be the relaxing part of the vacation. We'll mostly be hanging out at their apartment complex and enjoying the pool and warm weather.
Two families from our ward are going to be at Disneyland the same week as us so I'm hoping we run into them too.
I can't wait to go - maybe it's just the change from the day-to-day here, but I'm thrilled to be going - bring on the mouse ears!

Track Day

There are lots of things that I love about Tyler's school - they really seem to go above and beyond on a lot of things. They have lots of things at night for families and lots of dress-up days at school One of things that I really like though they do on Wednesdays during lunch recess. Every Wednesday the PE teacher has begun a track day. All the kids who want to can walk or run this track that goes around the playground. Four or five times around the track equals a mile. So the PE teacher stands out there and puts a dot on the kids' hands every time they go around. Then at the end of recess she records how many laps each kid has done. Every time a kid hits a 5-mile mark they get a little foot token that they string on a necklace so they know how many miles they've gone throughout the year - she calls it the 5-mile club, 10-mile club etc. and the kids gets recognized for different achievements. Tyler really likes it and every Wednesday he comes home with a hand marked up with dots. This topic was made blog-worthy yesterday when Tyler had his personal best and he came home so excited. I think it's such a fun way to get the kids active and also gives them a sense of accomplishment and also belonging to something. I love teachers who go the extra mile (pardon the pun!).

Round and Round

You know how every CD player comes with the feature of Repeat? Well I've often wondered who ever would use this? I mean, who wants to listen to the same song over and over? Well, I realized today that the person who invented it and then got it to be a standard feature was a parent of a 2 year old. Today Bay and I were driving around and I had 4 kids CD's in the car and Wheels on the Bus comes on. I know it's a fave of Bay's so she's happy and then as soon as She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain comes on she says, "Round and Round" (2 year old talk for, "Can we listen to Wheels on the Bus again please?"). So sure, again with Wheels, back to the lady still coming around the mountain, and more "Round and Round", so we go through this probably 6-7 times and finally I think of the Repeat button! So we drove all around listening to Wheels non-stop and everyone was happy. Yes, necessity must be the mother of all invention.

FHE Funny

Here's my funny FHE story for the night .- Derek is out of town so FHE was pretty casual at our house. Tyler was the activity and he decided that we were going to play Superheros. What, you might ask, does that consist of? Well, everyone gets to pick a super power and then we run through the house using our powers to escape all of the aliens that are trying to destroy our planet (I told you it was casual tonight!). So we all pick our powers - I pick invisibility, Tyler picks about a million powers, Emmy picks to be able to make poisonious treats, and Bay just picks to make cookies (she must have a soft spot for aliens). So off we go through the house defending our planet and Emmy says that she's just hit an alien - I say, "why don't you give them one of your poisonions treats?" and she says in the sweetest voice to an alien, "Would you like a cookie?".
On a completley different topic, I hope I'm not jinxing anything but I think it's safe to say that spring has sprung. With our crazy winter this year I've really been looking forward to spring for 2 months! But I think it's here - my daffodills and tulips are several inches tall and I love being able to just see something green outside. Logan made his first trip to the mailbox last week so spring must be here!

Ode to Grandpa

This is my ode to my dad - he's really gone above and beyond lately for me. I signed up to take Carleen Tanner's parenting classes Thursday nights knowing that I would miss several due to Derek being out of town or coaching the YM basketball team (of course they would play on Thursdays!). But I really would have been able to go to one class so far (out of 7) if it hadn't been for him. Derek's just been gone so much lately - the YM haven't seen much of him either. We seem to have a standing date Thursday nights. He reports for duty at 6:30 every Thursday, I run out the door to class, and when I get home I have all sleeping kids - it's pretty fantastic isn't it? I try to not think about how many fights he's had to referee, Wii controllers he's had to taken away, how many drinks he's gotten and all the rest - I just focus on the sleeping kids! The kids are getting pretty used to it to - last week Bay could tell that Derek and I were getting ready to go out without them and she ran to the window saying, "Papa Papa!" And then this week I was calling around to find a babysitter and I said to Tyler, "who should we get to babysit you guys?" - of course he said, "Grandpa, he's the best!". And then just today Bay was talking on her toy phone to Papa for a good 20 minutes! So there it is - my ode to my dad. Hopefully I'm a better mom due to these classes and he's made it possible for me to go. My kids shoule really thank him!

Bumbo Baby

So here's my Bumbo baby - Allyson was telling me about Bumbo seats since way before Logan was born - how great they were for babies and how she was sad Paisley had never had one. So I went on the hunt to find one (pink and purple were abudant, finding blue required more hunting). I wouldn't say Logan loves it by any means - but he's getting better at keeping more upright in it - though sometimes I do find him in more of a slump than he's inteded to be!
Logan's had some other firsts too lately. He's started cooing which is the single cutest thing ever! He just looks at you and talks like he's got something to say! His sleeping is getting better and I'm starting to get some hope that some time I will get some decent sleep. In one week he slept through the night 3 times - we haven't repeated that yet, but the fact it happened once is something isn't it? His sisters sure love him - Emily picks out his outfit almost every day and Bay spend the day pulling off his socks much faster than I can put them back on. He also went to his first movie last weekend. I wouldn't say "27 Dresses" is exactly his kind of show but he did great (he must have liked it better than my parenting class last night where I spent the whole night in the hall!). He also got to go to kindergarten orientation with Emmy this week and got the whole tour of the school - how many 3 month olds can say they've had a tour of a school bus?

Tyler's Valentine Concert

Tyler had his first grade Valentine concert a few weeks ago. It was absolutely adorable! They sang lots of Valentine songs and the kids looked so cute all dressed up. Tyler was all excited for his big night (he even told his teacher that he'd need fast homework that night!). For one song they had dancers go up on this stage and Tyler's partner was so adorable - she just drug him through that dance - when one kid had to spin the other under their arm - Tyler went under HER arm - I guess it was just the shorter of the two goes under - but it was hilarious! She didn't seem to sense his reluctance at all - basically grabbed him by the hand and said, "let's do this!". My mom almost laughed herself silly. Afterwards we took him out to get a treat for such a great first grade concert.

The picture of Logan in the slideshow is just because it was way too cute not to put in!

Emmy's Birthday

For Emmy's birthday Derek and I got a babysitter for the other kids and took her out lunch and then to Build-a-Bear. She had so much fun picking out what animal to get. There were probably 30 choices and she had to change her mind a few dozen times before she picked the monkey. After she picked him she got to put the heart in, stuff him, dry him off and brush him. Then you get to make him official - a birth certificate for Banana. She had a great time and takes Banana with us everywhere.

It's hard to believe that she's already 5 - but it's so fun to see her grow up. She's such a fun girl -always happy and such a peacemaker in our family. She's always easy going and gets along great with everyone. She's such a helper with Logan - she loves to pick out his clothes and is so great to be my little gopher for passeys, burp cloths, and all the rest. She continually cracks us up with her obsessions (right now dogs in a major way!) and her sense of humor. She's got her own personality and quirks - like how she wants to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day - to the point that she rolls up her pants and sleeves EVERY DAY - she's done it for so long I don't even notice anymore until she gets a comment. We're so blessed to have little Emmy in our family.

Snow Day

Tyler had his first snow day today. It's actually the first snow day we've had in our distric for many years - I had to explain to him what it even was. At first I had grand plans for our free day - this because I know what my sister does. Jen's kids had their first snow day a few weeks ago. Jen pulled out all the stops to make her kids day a fun one - they sledded, played in the snow and then warmed up by making homemade doughnuts - that's a fun snow day. Then today her kids got out again - what did they do with their fun day - they went out and bought a snowballer - think giant salad tongs that make cup-size snowballs. Then they were going to use their recycling bin (I think this falls under the 'reuse' part of recycling) to form giant blocks to make a fort! Then they were going to come in and watch a movie - get all warm - and then head back out for more fun. This is the vision I had this morning - this is not what happened.

It all took a turn for the worse when Tyler realized that he'd left his gloves and hat at school - I could fix the hat problem but I don't have any extra gloves for him. This pretty much eliminated all outside options. That left us with inside options - these aren't as fun. I started out by saying lets get our work done and then play - so we did a spelling test, math problems, and read. Then the day just got away from us - you know those days where after you put the kids to bed you think, "where did my day go? what do I have to show for it?" Well this picture is what we have to show for our free day - Tyler and Emily colored all day and hung all their dog pictures up on the wall. A giant dog family picture - that's what I have to show for my day. Who knows - there's more snow coming, maybe I'll get another chance.

Blessing Day

Photobucket Album

We blessed our little Logan this past Sunday. Doing it in January with the all of the snow we've gotten lately made me think we might not have a big turn out for the weekend - but we couldn't have been more wrong. We had so much family come it left us amazed. We had lots come in from out of town - John and Sandy, Angey's family, Allyson's family, Robb's family, and even Rainie all the way from Texas came to support us! It really meant a lot to me that people would go to such effort and expense to share our special day with us.

The whole weekend was great. All of Derek's family was here by Saturday morning and we were able to spend most of the day with Derek's family. Saturday night I spent it with my family because Allyson and Paul had come in earlier that day. On Sunday we got to spend the morning with Rainie and Allyson. The blessing itself was great (despite having church at 3:00!). All of my siblings were there and Derek was only missing one sibling - that's pretty amazing. Afterwards Allyson and Angey both got on the road to get home before it got too late and roads got bad. The rest of us went back to our house for dinner. We had such a fun evening and then John and Sandy said their goodbyes as they left for their mission. It was great timing to be able do both the same weekend.

All in all, it was wonderful.

Christmas at the Cabin

Our family had a great Christmas at my parents cabin. Robb and his family were there for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we did the whole Santa ritual - cookies for Santa (with a letter that asked him to save one cookie for Mr. Peeps) and the magic reindeer dust so they could find us since we weren't at home. The kids got their traditional pj's (picked out exclusively by Derek) on Christmas Eve and were bouncing off the walls. Tyler was just staring out the window looking for the sleigh. It was so fun to have all the magic of Christmas. The next morning was fun as Santa certainly delievered. Robb and family came back in the afternoon and spent Christmas night there. We had a great time with them. It was fun to spend Chirstmas there because of all the snow. It was also really fun to have Logan with us for Christmas.

Wish Bone Wishes

I cooked my first turkey this week -ok, so it wasn't technically a full turkey - but a 15 pound turkey breast counts in my book! So I pull out the wish bone and let Tyler and Emmy do it. Tyler wished that he could wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day and Emmy wished for a dog. When I told her that dogs are a lot of work she said that was fine. I asked her who would feed the dog and she answered "you can", to the question who will walk the dog she said, 'I'll hold the leash!' (not a big surprise since every stuffed animal in our house currently has a yarn leash), and then I asked her who would clean up after the dog, "oh, you can" - needless to say I'm not rushing out to buy a dog any time soon! I'm happy to report that Tyler won the wish bone - I prefer short sleeve shirts too!